The Role of the UPS in Disaster Recovery
Those great big batteries (UPS) at the side of the server are designed to prevent disaster striking should your site suffer a power failure.
I once stopped by at the UPS stand in a trade fair – they had great coffee and I needed a rest. Now I thought I knew about UPS devices, but the salesmen showed me some extra capabilities for disaster protection.
- The most important job of the UPS is to cut-in when the power fails
- UPS also protects against ‘brown outs’ when the light dims but the power stays on.
- UPS will also smooth voltage preventing power surges during electric storms.
Additional UPS Features
The system I saw at the trade fair had ‘bells and whistles’ like short term capacitors and diesel engines that would deliver conventional AC power. It also had microprocessor sensors and switch over.
A Cautionary Tale of an UPS disaster
I sometimes take on work on the basis of ‘no fix – no fee’. So I went to company advertising for a consultant to find the bottleneck on their network. To my delight got a contract. However, when I turned up, there were long faces all round, the server room had been burnt down.
Before I abandoned the job, I thought at least they could tell me what had happened. After a long pause, the junior techie blurted out that the UPS spilt neat acid onto a pile paper, the acid burnt the paper starting a fire. Cardboard boxes in the room also caught fire and that in turn burnt down the server. Well no work for me, but a moral to one and all, add: ‘ I must service the UPS’ to your disaster recovery plan.
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